28th August

Ferrybridge has been consistently well-watched and busy so far this autumn and it again provided some of the best birding on a bright and breezy day, with the first 2 Little Stints of the season and an out-of-habitat Purple Sandpiper being particularly noteworthy; 2 Kittiwakes and a Common Sandpiper were also of interest amongst the wide variety of other waterbirds dropping in there. At the Bill it was again the fields rather than the bushes that came up with the numbers, with the likes of Yellow Wagtail and Wheatear, that returned totals of 40 and 120 respectively, being considerably more conspicuous than any of the warblers (just 3 new birds were trapped and ringed at the Obs all morning); the supporting cast there included 9 Grey Herons, 7 Whinchats, 5 late Swifts and 2 Lesser Whitethroats overhead/on the land and 4 Balearic Shearwaters, a Great Skua and an Arctic Tern through on the sea.Immigrant moth numbers remained at a low ebb although a Scarce Oak Knot-horn Acrobasis tumidana was a decent overnight capture in the Obs moth-traps.